1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information storage medium and a method and apparatus to record/reproduce data on/from the information storage medium, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus to record/reproduce data on/from an information storage medium having a plurality of recording layers after performing optimum power control (OPC).
2. Description of the Related Art
An optical pickup performs non-contact recording/reproducing to/from an information storage medium. Optical disks that are one type of information storage media are classified into compact disks (CDs) and digital versatile disks (DVDs) depending on data recording capacity. Examples of optical disks capable of writing and reading information include CD-Recordable (CD-R), CD-Rewritable (CD-RW), and 4.7 GB DVD+RW. Furthermore, a high Definition-DVD (HD-DVD) or blu-ray disk (BD) with recording capacity of over 15 GB and a super-resolution optical disk that may read data recorded in a pattern of marks below the resolution limit are currently being developed.
While only single layer 4.7 GB DVD-Recordable disks are commercially available, dual layer 8.5 GB DVD-ROM disks are being sold in the market. To back up data recorded on the 8.5 GB DVD-ROM disk, a DVD recordable disk with the same capacity is required. Thus, to realize a need for a recordable disk having at least first and second recording layers, it is highly desirable to have techniques for maintaining the same recording/reproducing characteristics on a recordable information storage medium having a plurality of recording layers. One of the most important recording/reproducing characteristics is called optimum power control (OPC).